Dangerous offender William Shrubsall loses parole appeal

Dangerous offender William Chandler Shrubsall, who killed his mother and later committed violent attacks against Halifax women, has lost an appeal of an earlier decision that denied him parole.

On Wednesday, the Parole Board of Canada's appeal division upheld the board's November 2016 refusal to release him from prison.

In his appeal, Shrubsall argued that the board erred in finding that further work was required to determine if Shrubsall has sexual deviancies. 

Shrubsall has completed a high-intensity sexual offender program and participated in one-on-one counselling to address his crimes.

Shrubsall's violent past

A Halifax judge declared Shrubsall a dangerous offender in 2001 after a series of violent attacks on women. He will remain in prison until he is no longer a danger to the public. Shrubsall's next review is scheduled for 2021.

In June 1988, when he was 17, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter for beating his mother to death with a baseball bat in their home in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He claimed his mother had abused him.

In 1995, following his release from a U.S. prison, Shrubsall was accused of sexually abusing a woman and a 17-year-old girl in two separate incidents.

Still wanted in the U.S.

But before the jury came back with its guilty verdict, Shrubsall fled, leaving behind a suicide note. He has not yet served one day of his seven-year sentence for those crimes.

After Shrubsall ended up in Nova Scotia, his crimes continued.

In February 1998, he severely beat a clerk in a Halifax waterfront store. Three months later, he beat, robbed and sexually assaulted a 19-year-old university student in a south-end Halifax driveway. And in June 1998, he choked and confined a 26-year-old woman.

While in prison, Shrubsall legally changed his name to Ethan Simon Templar MacLeod.

If he is ever released, he will be deported to the United States to serve his sentence for the 1995 sexual abuse case.